Civitas Poll: NC Voters Want Gas Tax Cap Back at 35 Cents

Raleigh, N.C. – The newest Civitas Poll indicates an overwhelming percentage of North Carolina voters want to cut the gas tax — and a solid majority is willing to take money from rail and transit to pay for it.

Seventy-four percent of voters said they favored cutting the gas tax from 39 to 35 cents per gallon. Asked what cuts they’d support to pay for any loss of revenue, 59 percent would accept cuts in light-rail and mass transit programs. Also, 27 percent would accept reductions on new road construction.

“Reinstating the cap on the state gas tax at 35 cents a gallon is very popular,” Civitas President Francis De Luca said. “Some politicians complain they would have less money to spend. However, among North Carolina voters, there’s little debate: They want the gas tax lowered and capped, and they are willing to accept cuts in specific areas of transportation spending to do so.”

If you were to learn that reducing the Gas Tax will result in less money being available for transportation projects across the state, and due to the tax reduction, spending reductions were also necessary, please tell me which programs you would support cutting or slowing down in order to reduce the gas tax. Here they are – and you can choose more than one:

This poll of 600 registered 2012 general election voters in North Carolina was conducted May 19-20, 2012 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered 2012 general election voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past three general elections (2006, 2008, 2010) or be newly registered to vote since November 2, 2010.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in at least one of the past three general elections or is newly registered since November 2, 2010.

More information on the Civitas Institute is available at www.nccivitas.org, or contact Jim Tynen at (919) 834-2099.

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